Tyrese Maxey gets going, drops 45 in Sixers’ first win of season in OT vs. Pacers

Tyrese Maxey came alive in the second half, finishing with 45 points and leading the Sixers to their first win of the season, a funky overtime victory vs. the Pacers.

Hey look at that, a win.

The Sixers got in the win column in dramatic fashion by knocking off the Indiana Pacers 118-114 in overtime Sunday.

Tyrese Maxey struggled again in the first half, but came alive in the second half, finishing with 45 points, shooting 14-of-32 from the floor and 5-of-17 from three. Caleb Martin finished with 17 points on 16 shots, Eric Gordon went for 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting. Andre Drummond finished with nine points, 17 rebounds, and two huge steals at the end of regulation.

Here are some thoughts at the buzzer.

First Quarter

• Nick Nurse went to the same starting lineup as Friday night with Kyle Lowry and Caleb Martin rounding it out, and again they started the game off very ugly offensively. They only made 2 of their first 10 shots and turned the ball over three times within the first four minutes of the game. Indiana was off to an equally sloppy start, so it didn’t hurt them too much.
• Eric Gordon looked pretty bad in the first two games, but he was off to a good start this afternoon, making his first two shots on his way to seven first-quarter points. It was also nice to see him make this read to Oubre for the and-1, even though Gordon might have had a lane to the basket himself.

• A noticeable difference between this year’s team and last is how much they hustle for loose balls. They tracked down five offensive rebounds and turned those into 10 second-chance points. Guerschon Yabusele tracked one down to get Maxey his first field goal and Jared McCain fought for a floorboard that led to an easy KJ Martin bucket. They were able to win that battle despite some pretty small lineups in the first, as it ended with a five-point Sixers’ lead.

Second Quarter

• McCain successfully carried that energy across quarters. He slipped by the defense to grab a missed three and easily lay it back up. A few moments later he used a hesitation move to get past T.J. McConnell and get a wide open finger roll.

• While the rest of the backcourt looked good, Maxey continued to struggle to shoot the ball. He missed a couple wide open midranges, one of them well short which has become a bit of a pattern. He definitely wasn’t forcing it as much, only taking six shots in the first half. He did dish out three assists in the half, but also turned it over four times.
• There are a lot of reasons for this, but the Sixers have just been a bad three-point shooting team this season. That discrepancy helped the Pacers get out in front, as they were 5-of-6 from behind the line while the Sixers were just 2-of-7. Indiana led by six at the half.

Third Quarter

• Andre Drummond didn’t have the best first half, but his start to the second was much better. He finished a roll with a dunk that turned into an and-1, and grabbed a couple offensive rebounds to extend some possessions.
• The Sixers’ three-point shooting woes continued into the third though, especially from Maxey. They started the second half missing six of their first eight threes. Five of those misses were Maxeys’, who was just chucking things up.
• This layup in transition may have opened the floodgates for him. That was the start of four straight makes for him that all looked much more familiar. His 14-point quarter included finally getting another three to fall and beating Myles Turner off the dribble in isolation.

• Maxey was in a groove again, but the Sixers got in their own way trying to get out and take a lead. They turned the ball over on three of their next four possessions, which helped make it a one-point lead for the Sixers after the third.

Fourth Quarter

• Maxey carried that momentum into the fourth, scoring their first five points of the quarter. Unfortunately, it took three minutes for one of his teammates to make a field goal. When they did though, it was KJ Martin finally taking and making his first three of the season.
• It was a rough shooting night for Yabu, but he did a lot of the little things really well. Some of them show up in the stat sheet. five of his six rebounds were offensive. He did a great job keeping possessions alive. He also made a couple nice rolls and extra passes, his style of just keeping everything moving is pretty refreshing for this team.

• The team looked done down five with a minute and a half remaining, but the whole team stepped up down the stretch. Their defense was shaky all night, but they came up with two straight turnovers to retake the lead with 32 seconds remaining. Drummond made that three straight when he stripped Tyrese Halliburton coming out of the timeout, his second straight steal.
• Of course Halliburton, who’s struggled with threes this year, hit a flailing three to tie it up at 105. The Sixers had 3.5 seconds left, but still weren’t able to get any kind of play off. The full court heave did not fall, sending this game to OT.

Overtime

• Maxey was pretty much just what the Sixers needed in OT, starting off with a stepback three well behind the line. He had two more excellent drives to the basket which once again put the Sixers up three with 20 seconds remaining. He even appeared to have a game sealing block on Andrew Nembhard, but it was overturned to a foul.
• Kelly Oubre Jr. and Maxey each missed a free throw that left the door open for the Pacers. Caleb Martin intentionally fouled Halliburton thinking they were still up three when they were only up two. Luckily, Halliburton missed both, bailing Martin out of a really bad mental mistake and sealing the win for the Sixers.

• The Sixers will head back home this week, hopefully with reinforcements on the way. Their next game is Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET against a returning Tobias Harris and the Detroit Pistons.